


Operation Holiday Spirit

by Moontyger



Category: DCU (Comics), Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Community: batfam_exchange, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-06
Updated: 2014-01-06
Packaged: 2018-01-07 18:05:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1122762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moontyger/pseuds/Moontyger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One look at Dick's expression and Barbara knew he'd decided that this year, she'd be his holiday spirit project.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Operation Holiday Spirit

Christmas had never been a big occasion in the Gordon family. While Barbara was still a child, her father did his best to have Christmas Eve and Christmas off, but the job of a police officer was an unpredictable one and he often couldn't manage it. They had a few Christmases as a family, but most of the time she spent it alone, with nothing but her computer or a good book for company.

So she wasn't surprised when her dad called and told her that this year would be much the same. “It's fine,” she assured him and really, it was. Barbara wasn't a big fan of holidays to begin with. Christmas in particular meant traffic jams, annoying music in all the stores, and the sort of weather no one wanted to be out in, especially not in a wheelchair. 

It wasn't like she didn't have plenty to occupy her time. There was always work to be done; just because it was Christmas didn't mean crime stopped.

Dick, on the other hand, had always been a big fan of the holiday season. She'd never understood it; it wasn't as though Bruce were much for celebrating. Just like the police, Batman didn't take holidays off. By now, he should be just as used to not having a celebration as she was, but if he were, you'd never know it. Every year, there he was: trying to get every Bat and Titan in even vague proximity to take the night off and celebrate Christmas. Sometimes there were even Santa hats involved.

This year, Dick happened to be visiting when she got the call from her dad. One look at his expression and she knew he'd decided that this year, she'd be his holiday spirit project.

“He's not going to be off for Christmas this year?” he asked, though Barbara knew perfectly well that Dick already knew the answer from her side of the conversation.

“That's right.” Pointedly, she looked away from Dick (never the easiest thing to do, but she'd had a lot of practice) and stared intently at her monitor.

Naturally, he refused to take the hint. “Since you're not busy, we could do something for the holiday.”

“Who says I'm not busy?”

“Nothing that won't keep. It's only one night.”

Barbara sighed and took a last look at the video feed on her screen before she turned her chair to face Dick directly. She could keep protesting, but she knew that look in his eye. She might be known for her stubbornness, but this was a fight she wasn't going to win. Better to give in gracefully now than draw it out.

“Don't worry. I'll make sure we aren't completely out of touch.”

“All right, I guess it can't hurt – at least not _too_ much.” She shook her head, but couldn't quite keep herself from smiling. She might not like the holiday, but it was still nice to have someone want to spend it with her. “What did you have in mind?”

Dick grinned back, just as excited as he'd been back when they'd both been much younger, on a long ago Christmas Eve that they'd spent together – well, if being on patrol counted. “How do you feel about Blüdhaven?”

“Not exactly at the top of anyone's holiday destination list,” Barbara couldn't resist pointing out. “But all right, Boy Wonder. Let's see what you've got. Are you picking me up or am I making my own way there?”

It came out like a challenge and maybe it was, at least a little. If he were going to drag her to Blüdhaven to celebrate a holiday she wasn't particularly into, the least he could do was make it worthwhile.

* * *

By the time she arrived on Christmas Eve, Barbara was thinking better of the whole thing. The train to Blüdhaven was unpleasant at the best of times and no one would use that phrase to describe the trip she'd just been on. She'd been glared at, cursed out, hit in the head by purses and bags filled with wrapped packages, and even had several people outright trip over her because they couldn't be bothered to watch where they were going.

After all that, her hair was a mess, she felt almost as bruised as if she'd been back on the streets going head-to-head with criminals instead of just sitting on a train, and she couldn't greet Dick with anything other than a glare. “I'm **never** doing that again.”

“Sorry.” Dick shrugged and offered a disarming smile. She could tell by the way he moved that he was still wearing the costume under his clothes, but that was hardly a surprise. She'd known what to expect when he'd told her he couldn't pick her up after all. “You know how it is – something always comes up.”

Barbara nodded, not yet fully appeased. “And that's why I told you we couldn't take the night off.”

“It wouldn't be the first Christmas Eve we spent working together.”

“True. But Oracle's a lot less mobile than Batgirl was.” She could still do a lot with a laptop, but she didn't have the whole setup at home just because it looked cool.

“And Nightwing is just the opposite.” He led the way to the car, but he didn't open the door for her. Dick knew her well enough for that, at least.

Barbara took her time getting settled into the passenger seat so she didn't have to watch him stow the chair. She was used to it by now – of course she was – but still, there was a reason she preferred to take public transportation. But despite the car's appearance, she had to admit the seat was comfortable. By the time they were on the road, she was already in a better mood.

“It's not quite the Batmobile, but this is nice.”

Dick glanced her way, a quick dart of his eyes to take in her expression before he replied. “It attracts a lot less attention. And that sort of thing has never been me.”

“I know.” It wasn't her either, at least not these days. And if there had been a time when that wasn't true, it was far enough in the past that she refused to think about it. “I have to admit, though: I didn't think just the two of us for the holiday was your style either.”

“I think everyone else was just better at avoiding it.” Which meant, of course, that he didn't want to talk about it.

“Does that mean I'm this year's patsy? I'm warning you: I'm not wearing a silly hat or one of those awful Christmas sweaters.”

“Hey, I never said anything about hats.”

“You didn't have to. I know you too well.”

Despite the teasing, she really wasn't sure what to expect. It had been awhile since it had been just the two of them like this, with little chance of interruption. And even when they had spent time together, Dick had always been the one to visit her. Now she was in his territory and it made her uncertain.

It didn't help, of course, that his apartment wasn't wheelchair accessible. Dick assured her no one else was around to see, but Barbara hated having to be carried upstairs like that. She could hear Dinah's voice in her head, urging her to relax and appreciate the chance to be this close to Dick, but she couldn't. She was tense until he put her down in her chair, too busy feeling dependent and despising it to get even the slightest bit of comfort from his touch.

But Dick was good about things like that. He put her down and then backed off, just let her roll away from him and sit there, looking around in silence, getting her bearings in more ways than the obvious.

_It's clean,_ was her first thought. Inane, but definitely not what she'd expected from the glimpses she'd had when she'd contacted him at home. He must have put effort into cleaning it for her; she knew he didn't spend much time here. Or... she sniffed the air and realized the alternative. “You got Alfred to help.”

“That obvious, huh?” Dick looked a little sheepish, but he didn't sound surprised that she'd figured it out. “I was busy and it was your first time here. You can take your chances avoiding the dirty socks next time, if you really want to.”

“I'll consider it,” she said, making a mental note of that mention of _next time_. She'd definitely have to discuss that with Dinah next time she had a chance. Not that she was sure she'd take him up on it at the moment – not after that train ride. And not if he didn't do something about giving her a way to get up here on her own.

“I'll do something about the stairs, too,” he added, proving that if anyone knew someone too well, it went both ways.

“You do that and I'll definitely come back.”

Since Alfred had already done most of the work, it only took a few minutes for Dick to get their food ready to eat. It wasn't as fancy as eating in the manor: the dining room was small and most of his furniture was used, but the food more than made up for it.

It didn't take long before Barbara felt better than she had since she began this trip. Sometimes she forgot just how irritable she could get when she didn't bother to eat. She knew better, but there always seemed to be something more important going on.

“You know,” she commented, “I'd wondered what you were going to do about food. I was expecting Chinese take out, or something like the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving: popcorn and toast.”

“I'm not really _that_ bad, am I?”

Barbara pretended to consider, then shook her head. “Maybe that's more like if I were doing it. Though I'd definitely have gone with the take-out.”

“Hey, if that's what you want, it can be arranged.”

“Maybe some other time. Alfred always makes too much food.” Deliberately so, of course. Alfred knew perfectly well how bad they all were about prioritizing just about everything else over food preparation. If he could leave enough food that they'd have leftovers for days, he would.

She helped Dick package up the aforementioned leftovers and stowed them in the fridge before wheeling her way into his living room. She paused there, studying the tree in silence.

“More Alfred, or did you do this?”

“I did it. It doesn't feel like Christmas without a tree.”

Barbara nodded, remembering helping her dad decorate his tree earlier that month. Even when they couldn't be together on Christmas, that was the one ritual they always kept. It was nostalgic, seeing all the ornaments they'd acquired or made over the years and reminiscing about Christmases past. 

Of course, Dick's tree wasn't like that. All the ornaments were new and suddenly, she felt a little sad imagining him putting it up by himself. “You should have left it for us to do together.”

She could hear his grin in his voice; by this time, she was almost better with voices than faces. “Does that mean you've finally found the Christmas spirit?”

“I wouldn't go quite that far.”

“Then I guess I'd better give you this early.”

Surprised, Barbara looked up and took the box from his hands carefully. It was jewelry-sized, which made her wary, but she couldn't deny she was curious. Slowly, she slid her fingers along the silver wrapping paper, sliding them under the tape so she could remove it in one piece. A silly habit and she knew it – he was hardly likely to re-use the paper - but a hard one to break. 

Paper set aside, she lifted the lid of the white box, then the green felt one inside. She'd been braced for anything, but she hadn't expected what she found inside: a tiny gold owl, with matching earrings. They weren't just jewelry either: she could tell by their weight that they'd been modified in the same way as the similar canary set she'd had made for Dinah.

She was smiling when she looked up at Dick, though her words didn't quite match the expression. “Someone's been talking.”

“I might have asked around.” He smiled back and she knew he'd understood what she meant. _Thank you,_ even if she hadn't put it into words. “It won't make Oracle entirely mobile, but it'll help a little.”

She extricated the necklace from the felt card and held it out to him. “Help me with it?”

“A bat seemed too obvious,” he explained, fingers brushing the nape of her neck as he fumbled a little with clasp. She shivered a little; there was nothing to distract her from appreciating his touch now. “But the owl suits you.”

She adjusted the fall of the necklace, the owl briefly cold against her skin, and made a considering noise. “I suppose it does. Although the oracles served Apollo, not Athena.” She smirked up at him, not quite laughing, but it was close.

Dick shrugged. “Close enough.” And she had to agree; she probably liked the owl better than she would have a tiny sun anyway. It wasn't as though most of their work were done in the day, after all.

He'd settled back on the couch now and flicked the TV on before patting the space next to him. “Now come on. It's almost time for 'It's a Wonderful Life.'”

“Really, Dick?” Barbara sighed, but she settled herself in next to him anyway. The couch was used, too, but it was comfortable, and she leaned against him as she lifted each of her legs and arranged them to make it easier to stay that way.

“Unless you'd prefer 'Miracle on 34th Street'?”

She shook her head, but gave in. If he were determined to go with Christmas movies, then there seemed little point in arguing. It wasn't as though she had anything better planned, at least not right away. And okay, maybe she was a little fond of them herself, even if she didn't usually admit it. “Miracle, then. As long as it's the original.”

“Of course it is. Would I do that to you?”

Barbara nestled closer and smiled to herself as the movie began. “No, I guess you wouldn't.”


End file.
